Ruben Amorim has been warned Matheus Cunha may never reach the levels he did with Wolves for Manchester United with Tony Cacarino believing his recent form has been ‘exaggerated’.
The Brazil international move to Old Trafford in the summer in a £62.5million move but has so far only shown flashes of his potential and true ability.
Despite several encouraging performances, the 26-year-old has just one goal in 13 appearances and has failed to hit the ground running in the same way as fellow big-money summer recruit Bryan Mbeumo.
Former Chelsea striker Cascarino also believes Cunha’s arrival has had a negative impact on the influence of club captain Bruno Fernandes, who is operating in a deeper midfield position this season, while he isn’t producing enough end product to justify the praise he has been receiving.
‘Matheus Cunha, there’s been an exaggeration of how well he’s done at Manchester United,’ talkSPORT.
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‘He hasn’t done that well, Yes, he’s done OK and if he can get back to what he was at Wolves (he’ll be a good signing.
‘But look at his goals for. He’s got one in the games he’s played. I’m still not sure he’ll ever reach the level he was at Wolves because he carries the ball from the halfway line to the 18-yard box and does it well and brings the team up the pitch but he was a lot more than that at Wolves.
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‘He had a goal one in every two games at Wolves. Also, Man Utd are suffering because they’ve had to change the dynamics of Bruno Fernandes so it’s come at a little bit of price for Manchester United.’
It has been an equally tough baptism of fire for another high-profile recruit, Benjamin Sesko, whose underwhelming cameo in Saturday’s 2-2 draw culminated in what looked like a serious injury.
‘He looks like he’s so out of sorts,’ said Cascarino. ‘I think he’s got a bad injury. I think you’re going to find out he’s out for a while.
‘I watched him after the pass from Fernandes, he couldn’t get it out of his feet and then it looks like he gets his leg stuck.’
Those sentiments were echoed by Amorim in his post-match press conference who admitted he was concerned by Sesko’s injury.
‘We have to check, he had something in his knee. We have to see.’
The head coach later added: ‘Because it’s the knee we never know [how serious the injury is]. We need Ben to be a better team.’